Swordplay
by RadiantBeam
Summary: Himeko felt very confused. The fact that Chikane had a sword and was trying to kill her didn't help. ::Episode 11, variation:: ::Himeko x Chikane::


Disclaimer: I own nothing. I just had the idea, and it ran away on me. Apologies for any and all OOCness.

* * *

><p><strong>Swordplay<strong>

Kurusugawa Himeko was fighting for her life and losing. Badly.

The reason she was losing could be contributed to three sources. The first and most obvious source was that in all her life, Himeko had never once been trained in sword fighting. The closest she had ever come to it was when she had been given the lunar miko's sword before the final battle, and some basic practice swings she had taken. Other than that, though, she had gone into this fight totally green.

The second reason was that on top of trying to figure out how to fight with a sword, Himeko was also reeling from the confession her best friend had just unleashed on her. To hear such honest, emotional words from a girl that was revered in school for being silent and beautiful was both stunning and brutal; stunning because Himeko had never, ever once seen Himemiya Chikane so emotional about _anything_, and brutal because deep down, the blonde still had no grasp of why the taller girl felt this way about her.

The third reason was by far the simplest reason, and at the same time, the main reason why Himeko was losing so badly in the first place: she was fighting Chikane. She was fighting her best friend, the girl who had been a pillar of strength through this whole ordeal. She was fighting someone who had a history of making her feel very, _very _confused, and this _wasn't helping_.

Unfortunately, letting her mind wander in the middle of a sword fight with someone more skilled at the art than she was turned out to not be Himeko's wisest decision; she felt the pain before anything else, letting out a small shriek and stumbling back, instinctively bringing her hand to her chest. Blood dripped from a thin cut on her wrist, and she winced, tightening her grip on her sword.

This was bad. This was _very _bad.

Desperately, Himeko tried to consider her options as Chikane closed in on her, the blade of her sword flashing a dark purple. She could keep fighting, keep trying to get through to her friend, but that currently wasn't working very well. She could just give in and stab Chikane before she was stabbed, but the blonde had gotten this far with the intention of _saving _the other miko, not _killing _her. And, honestly, she would really like to leave Chikane alive, she had a lot of questions about her confession…

_Wait_. Her eyes widened as it hit her. _That's it!_

"Chikane-chan! I, uh, um…" She fumbled around for the words, hastily swinging her sword around so the blade pointed at the blue-haired girl. It wasn't much, but it gave her pause. "I…. I don't mind that you have these feelings for me…" Now a faint pink hue colored her cheeks. "But I really think we could resolve this better if, you know, you… you put down your sword."

A long, awkward pause. In the silence, all Himeko could hear was the sound of her own blood dripping to the floor, but she ignored it, gazing into Chikane's eyes. The silence seemed to last forever, until…

"Put down my sword?" Chikane cocked her head to the side, as if Himeko had spoken another language.

Slowly, the blonde nodded, swallowing hard. "I think it would help," she said at last. "We could… talk more about your feelings if you put your sword down." She hesitated. "I can put mine down too, if it helps."

It was the best compromise she could think of. She was really very bad at this sword fighting thing, and deep down, she still believed wholeheartedly that Chikane had no honest wish to hurt her. Maybe if she and Chikane could talk about it, honestly talk about it, they could—

"Thank you for the offer, Himeko, but no."

…

Himeko blinked once. Twice. Three times. For a moment, she seemed like a toy stuck in wind-up. "What?"

"I said no." Absently, Chikane spun her sword around, so her blade lightly touched Himeko's. "I rather like having a sword in my hand right now. It's comforting."

Himeko blinked again. At this rate, Chikane was going to break her. Slowly, she lowered her sword, utterly baffled. "Okay?"

Chikane nodded, seeming pleased her friend understood. "Don't misunderstand me, I get what you're saying. This is just very emotional for me, you know? The sword helps."

"… How?"

"It calms me."

Another blink. Himeko seemed stuck in an eternal loop of blinking. Chikane was honestly beginning to worry about that.

Finally, the solar miko cleared her throat. "Chikane-chan, I understand the sword is…. Comforting… for you, but I think it would really help if you put it down."

"But it's helping me prove a point."

The blonde winced. "I'd feel much better about that point if it wasn't attached to a sword…"

Chikane seemed honestly baffled as to why her friend wanted her to put down her sword. Then again, one could argue that by this point, the poor girl was hardly sane. Maybe the sword was honestly comforting for her at this point, even if her holding it made Himeko feel all kinds of nervous.

"Does it make you uncomfortable that I like holding my sword, Himeko?"

"Well, um… yes…. Kind of." Himeko sighed, rubbing her sore wrist. "Honestly, I'd prefer it if you didn't have the sword at all, Chikane-chan."

Chikane frowned thoughtfully. "It's _your _sword, actually, now that I think about it…"

"That's not what I… oh, never mind." She could feel a headache coming on, and looked pleadingly at the dark-haired girl. "Chikane-chan, please?"

"I honestly don't get why the sword bothers you."

… Himeko was beginning to run a little low on patience. "The fact that you've swung it at me several times with the intent to kill might have something to do with that," she muttered.

"But it's helping me prove a—"

"_I know!"_

It was rare for the purple-eyed girl to raise her voice, ever; for that reason, quite stunned by it, Chikane snapped her mouth shut, staring at Himeko with wide eyes as the other girl glared at her, trembling again; for an entirely different reason than before, though.

"Honestly, Chikane-chan!" Now frustrated beyond all belief, Himeko threw away her own sword; it let out a single loud clang before skittering silently along the wooden floor, completely forgotten by the solar miko. "The sword isn't helping you prove _anything_! It's just _scaring _me! And I'm already confused enough because I'm fighting _you_, and you make me feel _weird_, and you've confessed and it makes me feel _wonderful_, but you still have that _sword_! It's very confusing right now!"

Chikane blinked once. Twice. Several times. Now she seemed to be the broken one. Finally, she slowly opened her mouth again and spoke, hesitantly. "Himeko?"

The other girl sighed, slumping her shoulders. "What I'm saying, Chikane-chan, is I don't mind your confession," she murmured. "It makes me feel _happy _that you see me like that. The sword just… confuses your message."

Chikane blinked again. Finally, one last time, she spoke. "But the sword—"

"Finish that sentence and I swear I'll smack you."

Wisely, Chikane didn't finish her sentence. After a moment of hesitation, she dropped her sword.

She knew it was the right choice the moment Himeko flew into her arms and kissed her like tomorrow wasn't coming.

**The End**

* * *

><p>Yeah, I won't even try to explain this one. I haven't written for KnM in awhile, but I'd like to get back into it. This was mostly born from a hilarious comment on a Youtube video for episode 11 of KnM, the English dub version, and evolved from there with a skit from Moczo. The original quote that started it all was "Chikane's confession would be nicer if she weren't swinging her sword", and it just spun out of control from there.<p>

Read and review, please!


End file.
